Friday, March 29, 2024

Obama Addresses Immigration Reform during Twitter Town hall

President Barack Obama held his first ever Twitter town hall at the White House, where he responded to 18 “tweets” that tackled everything from education to immigration to jobs for veterans, yesterday.

Moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the town hall provided the President with the opportunity to connect with Americans directly, particularly the high-tech youth.  However, instead of “tweeting” back in 140 characters or less to the public’s questions, Obama responded to the questions from the White House via live-stream video in front of a small audience.

“In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?” the President tweeted as he kicked off the town hall.

Twitter then selected questions from thousands of inquiries including tweets from Speaker of the House John Boehner and conservative New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

Although the town hall focused primarily on jobs and the economy, a question regarding immigrant entrepreneurs was posed to the president.

”Immigrant entrepreneurs can build companies and create jobs for US workers.  Will you support a startup visa program?”

Obama responded by acknowledging our broken immigration system and advocating for comprehensive reform that would allow entrepreneurs and high skilled individuals to stay in the U.S. He expressed his support for a streamlined visa system that would allow job creation for students who have invested in their education here.

As his re-election campaign revs up, the President will continue to find innovative ways, like the Twitter town hall to hear the concerns of Americans regarding important issues facing our nation like the economy and immigration.

 9 News

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